fever 1793 mattie fever 1793 lucille cook

Lucille puts more restrictions on Mattie, who is frustrated at being so confined.

Still, there are more cases as August progresses and there have been deaths.

Though others remind them there is always a sickness during the height of summer heat. Some people are certain the refugees from Barbados have brought the illness and want them quarantined. As the city has prospered, so has Cook’s.īut August has brought fever-just a few cases to start, but enough to worry Mattie’s mother, Lucille, who forbids her daughter from doing any errands or getting provisions down at the docks. Since her father died, she helps her mother run the business along with Polly, the serving girl and her childhood friend, and Eliza, a free black who has been cooking up the special fare Cook’s is known for since it opened. Philadelphia is the nation’s first capital city and Mattie is proud to live here. Mattie’s parents own Cook’s Coffeehouse, a hub for politicians and merchants located two blocks from President Washington’s house.

The story centers on 13-year old Mattie Cook, who watches helplessly as her beloved city grapples with the fear and devastation the epidemic wreaks. Captain William Farnsworth Cook, Pennsylvania Fifth Regiment.įever 1793, is a compelling historical novel based on the yellow fever epidemic that ravaged Philadelphia during the stifling hot summer of 1793. They didn’t squall like children and hide in the woods. What is wrong with people…We suffered all kinds of disease in our youth, but folks were sensible. I didn’t run from the redcoats, and I won’t run from a dockside miasma.

Fever 1793 mattie fever 1793 lucille cook